Enjoying the journey?

Just visited a blog, Crankycockatoo , that I keep my eye on now and then and was given a great reminder about life and what we're here for etc
One of Timbercrete's sayings is "Enjoy the Journey".
Why? Because we believe the journey is far more important than the destination.
As someone who follows the teaching of Jesus and the bible closely, this resonates hugely! Jesus was so much a blessing in His day, not just in the future or just what He did on the cross. His journey, who He showed us He was, how He lived His life, His servant hearted attitudes, the way He loved others, all of these things a reminder of how important the journey is, the people we meet, the people we love, the business we conduct with people, relationships . . . . that only happen once. Life's too short to just keep our eyes fixed on; 'one day I'll have it made' 'One day it'll be alright''When I get it done, when I make it big''I'll make it right when' etc etc probably one of my favorite sayings, carpe diem - 'Seize the day'. I haven't perfected it by any means but that's the journey that God is teaching.

ACOM

So . . the day after the Green festival I'm up at 4.00am to catch a flight to Melbourne for a new venture in serving with ACOM, here in Adelaide, as a formation director.
So I traveled to Melbourne (right past Port Adelaide enemy territory, Geelong, yes kept my head low)for a couple of days retreating. It was great!
Actually, despite being there for others, I got heaps out of it. It has stirred a few things up in the thought processes and future things with God. To tell you the truth whenever I meet my good mate Neale I always end up thinking a lot more than I envisage.
Watch this space.
The only issue I have about the trip was the flights. VB flight arrived about 30min's late despite starting out early. The growly group I flew home with was 90 min's late in even getting away!

Hot Festival!

Ok so now I'm a week overdue for this one but the Green City Festival was great but tiring.
Was up at 4.30am to get in to the City and setup so it was a bad start. The day was great, plenty of interest etc but it was a stinker! 38 and everything was outside! Stood up all day. I've already had some interest from it so I guess I'll call it worthwhile for now.

Savings and Loans Green City Festival Adelaide

Off to the Adelaide Green City Festival on Sunday for the cause of our environment and Timbercrete. Should be a hoot! It's FREE! So if you read this and are concerned about the enviro and want something to do then come along and I'll catch you there. Click on the link above for more info.

Farmer Glenno

Oh yeh! You heard right, I think you can now add farmer to the list. I drove me a tractor! Why? You ask. Coz the farmer dude next door is training me to drive his tractors for grape harvest, yeee Haah!
Now I know the pic is a really badly cut and I'm not quite, how do you say it, as belly challenged, but give it a bit of time loafing on the tractors and a few grapes and I might be heading that way.
Just need me a pitchfork and a stalk of hay out my mouth.

Police and Fergie

This wasn't planned but it was huge!
Thanks to my brother in law's brother in law who can get free tickets to such things, went to the Police and Fergie concert last night and it was an awesome spectacle. The music, the lighting the whole shibang, awesome!
Not heaps into The Police but once those songs start playing you can't help but sing along and get into it. We sat in very good seats to the right of the stage which means my right ear was kinda deaf for the rest of the night.
Anyway, great event, definitely recommend it, can you guess what song they were playing from the phone photo?

Heath Ledger Dead

News
As news comes in this morning on Heath Ledger’s passing away it makes you think about life and death and the importance on living everyday as a day not to be taken for granted.
I guess I’d say that God has given us this life to live for a purpose, finding that purpose and living it to the full is what makes life so enjoyable. For me living for God and knowing Jesus makes life awesome, an adventure.
My prayer for you is that life is fulfilling in the innermost parts, not just on the outside.

Next Read?

Ok so it's taking me a while to read Velvet Elvis but I've just been on to Scott's Blog and it seems there could be a new read on the horizon Pagan Christianity hmmmmmm

Golf

Up for a game?
Got me some clubs, - a late Chrissy / birthday gift. Been playing a bit with a mate and his sons with Brody as well the last couple of school holidays.
I suck at golf! It has to be the most frustrating game on earth! So if you ever need a confidence boost, come and play a game with me and I'll make you feel like a champion!

Velvet Elvis - Jump

Ok so things are slow, this is just the first chapter! Michelle has probably finished!!
Anyway. . . . The question I have in my head from this chapter - 'Jump' - is, while we're on the whole painting imagery, is it possible to view being a follower of Jesus, after following Him in certain boxes and frameworks for most of our lives, like starting a new paint canvas? Is it possible to strip all that we have learned about Christianity (the good and not so, right or wrong) to come to a place where we follow Jesus and be his people here and now in this culture in a form that is not hindered by boxes, rituals, traditions etc
I agree with Rob Bell that all of us when we read scripture and talk of God and Jesus will come from it with our own bent, with all that has gone before us to shape us to who we are. But . . . my belief (probably my bent :) ) is that God and Jesus blow boxes, rituals and tradition apart!
So . . . I think Rob in this chapter is getting us to move our minds (Jump) to a place like this, where we try and view God from a new canvas. I guess for me, let me waffle here a bit, if I was to strip all the stuff away and it was just me and a few people left on earth and all the church buildings had been wiped away, there was not enough 'Christians' to meet on a morning sometime during the week, who would God and Jesus be to me? If I was the only follower of Jesus left on this earth what would I do with that? What would I value about being a follower of Jesus the most? If I knew Jesus yet my family didn't and there was no-one else, who would I spend most of time with? If the impression of 'Christianity' is not a reflection of the character of Jesus, who will lead people to the real Jesus?
Impacting book so far, just soaking it in.

Up at the crack of dawn!

I think this is God's time. When everything is so still and just waking up. This morning was a bit cooler after a 41 celsius day yesterday and it was dead calm, really nice amongst the bush and the vines. Kookaburras were laughing at blinkin 5am so they seemed happy and I was up at 5.15 for a hopefully productive day at the shed with the fam.
There is something about this time though that is God shaped, when the hustle and bustle is out of the way and it's just you, creation and God, and maybe a dog trying to eat your toast. It doesn't happen often enough, yet, actually, for God and His creation it happens every morning, it's just me that usually misses it.

Velvet Elvis Review 1

Currently reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. It’s a great read! It was on my list for Christmas . . . and received it gladly 

I have a fair bit of respect for Rob Bell from what I hear from his messages at Mars Hill and his Nooma dvd’s and wanted to read this book on ‘Repainting the Christian Faith’.

Teresea and I listen to Rob Bell’s messages when we’re manufacturing bricks. Teresea is a quicker reader than I am so she’s nearly finished it and loves it, I’m up to the third chapter. There’s a couple of reviews on line of ‘Velvet Elvis’ and ‘Sex God’, Rob’s other book, so I’m not going to reproduce the wheel, especially seeing as I’m no book reviewer anyway but I am going to write down some thoughts from my perspective and what I am thinking and would love to interact with anyone if they have the time.

Firstly ‘Velvet Elvis’ is a velvet painting of Elvis that Rob has lying in his basement . . . . My Bro’s use to have these velvet paintings in their room and I used to love them as a kid coz if you had a uv light some of the lighter colours would glow and it would look 3d ish, it was soooo cool, so I’d like to know if Rob's Elvis glows but that’s just a side point eh.

The main thrust of the intro to me is that the exploration of life, theology, and Christian faith has always been fluid and needs to stay that way. . . . not set in any one way but fluid, changing, reinventing, repainting, reforming. Recognising that Jesus, His truth, His love, His hope is never ending but how we embrace it and how it is perceived and communicated needs to mean something now, for today, for the person living in 2008 not in the 1800’s, 1970 when I was born, 1980, 2000 or even 2007.

This struck a huge chord in my heart. One of my major frustrations of formal ministry was the resistance of people who say they follow Jesus yet would not even consider or didn’t know how to consider, being the people who follow Christ in fresh and fluid ways. Just trying to dialogue about it was a threat to something that was held dear. My belief is that what was often held dear was not in fact the many beautiful facets of a loving God but the mere long standing traditions of a people who had become comfortable in their environment.

In this then I think Rob Bell is spot on and totally agree with his thoughts. I’m probably not so graceful (so I guess it’s an area of personal growth) when he says that it’s ok when a body of Christ in whatever form, sits with the current painting and says that’s enough. What if the current painting has faded and no longer looks like Elvis, is it still Elvis? If the faded painting was Jesus, is it still Jesus?

Don’t get me wrong, my love and acceptance of people in this boat still exists to a point that people probably wouldn’t understand but my grace is stretched when I see Jesus portrayed as something I think He is not and where people who need the faith, hope and love of the creator are served outdated rituals of something that used to look like Jesus but is now at times a fading memory.

My aim for my life and for 2008 is to keep discovering what it means to follow Jesus on this earth and to try and be His hands and feet in the places He sends me wherever that may be.

More in the future. Have an awesome 2008!
Glenno

Merry Christmas!

Hi all, pray you have a great time over Christmas, that it's a great time spent with family and friends and that you can take the time to be thankful for that precious gift of Jesus.
Thanks to all who have read my blurbs over the year and have commented and stuff, it's cool to have these conversations.
Pray that you have an awesome year of 2008, see you in the blogosphere!
Glenno

Relate to this?

I'm sure many of us at this time of the year can relate to this photo, taken yesterday by my lovely wife at the zoo.
I kinda think it relates to the fella's a bit more though. I'm sure if he had pants on his hand would be down there and a remote would be on his lap.

The BIG 3 . . . 7

Spent the day at the Zoo yesterday with the fam for the 37th Bday. Gotta say the big 4 . . 0 is creeping up way too fast for my liking. It all depends on the way you feel I guess and actually with my knee giving me curry and a stuffed shoulder 40's sounding about right. Actually . . . was carrying a couple of pavers a couple of days ago, walking between a couple of pallets and my foot became caught in between the pallets which sent me flying. Came off with a great graze on my shoulder and a lump on the good knee. I think this is what they mean when you get old and they say 'he had a fall'? I hope not! I'll put it down to pushing my body to the limit and living on the extreme edge, holding on to my youth and living to the full. Now, where's that ice pack?

Timbercrete Titans Rock the ICA

Okay, so footy season is well and over and Cricket season has well begun. I coach the U11's 'Timbercrete' Titans 1 indoor cricket team. There is a 2 and 3 team also, that means Timbercrete Titans shirts can be seen all over the place on Saturday mornings and they're bright!
Brod's plays in the team I coach and a few others from footy and other schools. They've been playing as a team now for approx 3 years, they're skilled and they know the game. This season, not unlike footy they are again undefeated. They played the second best team in the comp on Saturday, the Crushers and had some crushing inflicted upon them. In 16 overs the Titans 1 finished with a score of 175 runs. One of those batting pairs hit 65 runs off 4 overs. They were very pumped and thought it may have been a tight game, so you could see them putting in that extra effort in the field. The Crushers were dealt a flurry of great bowling, catching, throwing and wicket keeping to be all out for 49. Now it's time for a break, won't know what to do on Saturday mornings for a while, c'mon footy season!

Out with the old and in with the new

Well it's been a few weeks now that Cuddles, the black cat, went missing.
We have come to understand that being in a more rural setting lends itself to certain mishaps that may not normally occur in suburbia concerning animals.
A night or two before Cuddles disappeared Teresea heard a very distressed chicken and found a couple in hiding. One of the chickens now has a limp from what we believe was a hungry fox mauling. She lives to lay another egg though, albeit now with a limp, the others were found and are at to their laying best again.
It is of my opinion therefore, that Cuddles, a cat (kitten then purchased from a suburban pet shop), was also unaware of the perils of country life and found herself in the jaws of that very same fox, never to return again.
This is mere speculation however, as I have some opposition to this theory as they (not to be mentioned for fear of incrimination) think I'm just after a good gory story.
My ground for this speculation though, I believe, is well founded. On that very afternoon we saw Cuddles, near the house, looking as happy as larry on our way out to indoor cricket training at approx 16.15 hrs and 20 sec's. Between the time we came home, approx 1800 hrs, and calling her for tea, 1900, at dusk, she had gone.
No sick cat from a snake bite, no run over cat from a car, no smells of rotting decay (you know) nothing, nada. It is upon these facts, and the fact that she always came in for food, that I believe she was taken, without a trace. . . . .
Anyway, that all over, now we have a new one! Molly. Get over it fast and move on, that's what I say. This one is far more street wise as it came from a countryfide home, next door, for nothing. Hopefully she'll give that fox a good run for its money and take a few mice out along the way.

When the simple things turn bad

Well, I'm happily working away in the shed and I get the call . . . Brody's dislocated his finger at school, can you go and and get him. So out the door I go, it's about 10.30 in the morning. So I'm thinking, should be fine we'll just pop it back in . . . right?
Get to the school and he's just sitting there like nothing's really going on except his hand's all bandaged up and in a sling. So off we trot to the nearest hospital. Not a long wait and the doctor has a look and it's his left index finger on the knuckle closest to his wrist, the first knuckle and his finger is pointing up not straight out. So the doctor gives it a yank to pop it in . . . . and yanks again a bit harder . . . still won't go. So . . off to get an xray, takes forever coz the xray computer thingo has shut down. Come back to emergency and wait, and wait, and wait, you know the drill. Doc comes along with the xray. Yep, dislocated, cool. So now it's time for the real yanking. Gives Brod's a few injections with the trusty local and off we go twisting, turning, pulling . . . real hard this time, now Brod's is feeling a bit of pain and some stress starts to set in. Nup, no go, 'I'll just get a doc who's done this a lot more than I have' the doc says. New doc has another real hard yank, definitely harder than the last fella. Nup, he says you need to go to a bigger hospital. The first doc gives his finger one last good go just in case and sends us on our way.
Now we're really waiting. I'd say it's about 1pm. We're waiting for the hand doctor and I think they had to fly him in from Venezuela or something (slight exaggeration)it took a fair time. We get to see his assistant at about 3.30 and she's not pulling anything. At about 4.30 the hand doctor (plastic surgeon) is ready. He asks a few q's like 'where did they apply the local?' 'in the finger' we told him 'nah that's no good he needs his whole hand dead'. So he plugs brody with more local this time in the wrist! His hand goes off to sleep so it's time for some more yanking! The doc politely tries to ask questions to distract Brody, who is well aware of his schemes, while really yanking hard, so hard I thought he might pull his finger clean off! Actually to the point where this six foot and a bit big doc was shaking because of how hard he was pulling. Nup, you're gonna have to stay the night and we're going to have to cut you open. What! I thought dislocations were an easy fix. Well you learn something new everyday. Not this finger on this knuckle as there's a ligament running up the finger that gets caught in the knuckle (so we're told by some doctor a week after, 'no matter how hard they pulled they would never get it back in' he says) great.
So now we wait for the operating theatre. Some fella comes in and pushes in front coz he chopped three fingers off with an angle grinder! Fancy that, the nerve of the guy. So get this . . . . at 3.30am the next morning Brod's has surgery. What a saga! I was stuffed! Brody was sick of being yanked and was glad the finger was finally in it's righful position.

I$n't it time to break out?!

Caught up with some new friends on the weekend who shared that they had been given a hard time from fellow Christian friends for moving to a suburb, that by certain people's standards, isn't as good as others.
It caused me to think about something I've been pondering on lately and that is a Christian's synchronistic lifestyle with the culture in which we live.
By all standards, from what I hear from people around me, I am meant to be making a whole stack of dollars, living in a nice suburb, paying off the house, driving a decent car, you know the drill. What I have discovered is that this is not only the dream of our society and culture it's also the dream of many 'Christians'.
The question I have about this is about simply hearing God's voice, obedience and faith.
If i hear God's voice correctly I'm pretty sure he's been telling me all my life, through his word, to seek Him first, not serve 2 masters, that He will provide my needs, to love Him and to love others before myself.
So if I have dream to be affluent is this not in total contrast to His word? Am I not being more like the world than a follower of Jesus?
So I think that one of the big reasons our local churches are slowing to have an impact on our culture is that the local church in many ways is just a mini culture of the same mindset. If it is that, then it's no wonder that the sick, the hurting, the broken, the lonely, the poor can't relate and don't find Jesus relevant.
John in the book of Rev had something to say about this, actually Jesus through John. It came in a picture of the lukewarm church at Laodicea, not standing for anything, totally affected by the surrounding culture. Jesus said the church was basically good for nothing.
I believe followers of Jesus don't just fit in to the culture and enjoy the ride with a little genie to rub when we get into strife, like a get out of jail free card. We're either for it or not. We either have faith in God to provide, hear His call, try to live the obedient life or we don't.

Faith

Faith isn't faith unless it's tested.